Hancock County hiring new deputy prosecutor to help with influx of cases

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

GREENFIELD, Ind. – The Hancock County Council approved funding for a new deputy prosecutor after a request from the county’s prosecutor, Brent Eaton.

Eaton was noticing a dramatic increase in cases and he felt this hire would help their office with the workload.

“We are swamped,” he said. “You are always swimming upstream on things.”

In 2013, his office filed 1,992 cases. Five years later, the number was 2,752. That is nearly 800 more. The upward trend is also startling with drug offenses. 290 counts were filed in 2012. Last year, it was 1,073 which is a 270 percent increase.

“When you are doing too many things, you cannot dedicate time and attention to one thing,” said Eaton.

He hopes the new deputy prosecutor will help with this caseload. Eaton believes the rise is not necessarily because there is more crime but instead a growing population and stricter enforcement.

“Our officers are proactive,” said Major Robert Campbell with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office. “They want to search out and find these things that are detrimental to our community.”

Campbell said the jail is over capacity by nearly 100 people and some of the crime is trickling in from Marion County.

“I think our guys do their due diligence to go out there and go after those drug traffickers,” Campbell said.

The prosecutor’s office will be interviewing and hopes to have the position filled soon.